Hardwire Armor Systems outfitted Delaware’s Colonial School District this year with bulletproof whiteboards capable of absorbing ammunition from handguns, shotguns, or assault rifles. No psychiatric evaluations of the technology and the effect it could have on children were conducted.

A year after the Newtown school massacre, architects assure us that safe schools don't have to look and feel like bunkers. But they also note that facilities can only go so far in providing security in a violent world.